One Futures End tie-in down, with another one right on it’s heel. With the focus centered on John this time around, it’ll be interesting to see what may happen to him five years from now, considering his recent traumatic break up with Fatality. Has John changed as a person? What other mixtures could cause John to veer to the Indigo Tribe? Which is even more dubious when you factor in how the Indigo Tribe “recruits” their members. Let’s see if Van Jensen can continue this magic train into the distant future!

This issue is all about John Stewart, so if you were hoping for something about the Corps as ensemble then this won’t be the book for you. John has gone through a dramatic character change over the past five years. He’s aggressive to anybody who isn’t a personal friend, it’s a bit jarring to see at first. To give some context, he threatens to kill to unnamed Green Lanterns and refers to them as cannon fodder.

John is still cerebral, but his feels more withdrawn and it’s alluded to that the revelation about Fatality was part of this downward spiral for him. This issue in a way is a public therapy session for the veteran lantern. Details about his past are accounted for as Indigo 1 shows up and attempts to recruit a former Green Lantern turned rouge. It all comes full circle with Indigo 1 being killed by John, and because he feels compassionate he is “inducted” and made new leader of the Indigo Tribe.

The finale felt a bit forced, but when you factor in how the Indigo Tribe recruitment works it makes sense. John didn’t join willingly but ultimately was forced into his new position. Hopefully current John Stewart won’t become this much of an asshole,Even though this was an unusual look into the future but it was a solid one shot story from start to finish.

Bernard Chang is not on pencil duties for this issue but this time it’s with four different artist. Some of them might be inkers, either way that’s a lot of people working on a single issue. Lucky for us most of the art is consistent in it’s storytelling. Nothing feels to jarring, it’s a smooth ride from start to finish. The colorist did use the all red back round with only hints of Green, but here they felt misplaced. Most of them were standing pieces instead of the normal action panels, with the exception of John stabbing Indigo 1.

They didn’t ape Chang and maintained their own visual flare. Overall a solid job from this team of artist

As a complete package this was a much more engaging issue than the previous Lantern book but similar problems continued to plague. The exposition about the Shadow Empire seemed uninspired to read, since it’s just a footnote in the 20 page plot.

Green Lantern Corps: Futures End #1 earns a 3/5

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